Irish people in mortgage arrears suffer suicidal thoughts

Irish people in mortgage arrears are suffering from severe depression and almost a quarter have made plans to end their own life.

That’s according to a new survey carried out by a clinical psychologist on behalf of the Irish Mortgage Holders Association.

Their Director David Hall, said the survey – conducted on almost 500 Irish people in debt – should “act as a wake-up call” to the government.

The highlighted specifics of the findings are as follows:

44% said they felt depressed either all of the time or most of the time

31% have had suicidal thoughts in the last four weeks

22% had active plans to kill themselves

45% of people indicated harmful levels of alcohol use

He’s urging anyone feeling depressed to reach out and get professional help:

“We will, over the next number of years, witness first hand the mental health turmoil that has been to individuals and to families as a direct result of prioritising banks and ignoring those on the front line dealing with this debt issue with banks, and I think we’re going to see significant difficulty,” he said.

“We have seen, sadly, five of our clients who have taken their own lives over the last number of years, and that, we believe, is only a handful of some of the others who have taken their own lives around the country due to financial difficulties.”